Turmoil behind the scenes: something is up with gold

10:27p ET Wednesday, February 21, 2001

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

There's an intriguing article about Gold Fields and Anglogold
just posted at www.theminingweb.com. Here's the link:

a href=http://www.mips1.net/MGGold.nsf/Current/4225685F0043D1B2852569FA007F5Cht...
9F?OpenDocument

If the link doesn't work for you, just go to:

a href=http://www.theminingweb.comhttp://www.theminingweb.com/a

and scroll down a bit. You'll see it.

Here's a fun excerpt:

* * *
One of the wildest suggestions is that Anglogold may be
dismembered. It is currently held in such low regard outside
South Africa that many shareholders might see value in
having its operations distributed among better operators.

Ironically, this mirrors precisely comments made by
Anglogold marketing director Kelvin Williams when he
spoke at the Cape Town mining conference recently:
quot;There is only one arithmetic governing the consolidation
of the industry and that is the arithmetic of value to
shareholders.quot;

One analyst pointed out that the government may also
spend some time thinking about the damage hedging
did to the economy, noting that Anglogold is the most
prolific hedger: quot;What's in South Africa's best interest?
The government issues mining licenses, not
sell-all-your-reserves-forward licenses.quot;

* * *

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer